Separating beauties from beasts

Tag Archives: MAC Cosmetics

I’ve been using the MAC Brush Cleanser for several years now, but every time I had a full bottle, I always forgot to photograph it.

Well, this time, right when I got it, I snapped photos of it immediately, so I wouldn’t forget.

I haven’t tried a lot of brush cleansers on the market, but this is my favourite, despite it being pricey.

And sometimes when I’ve been in a pinch, I’ve used just simple dish detergent and water to clean my brushes. However, I really prefer the MAC Brush Cleanser because it also disinfects as it cleanses. Plus you can use it for spot cleaning, which I do more often than deep cleansing. (Spot cleaning is when you put some on the brush and wipe the makeup off onto a paper towel and then use your brush again quickly).

MAC RiRi Woo Lipstick from the RiRi Hearts MAC Collection is a winner! I’ve seen it on people of all different races, and it looks so flattering!

This is a beautiful, bright red lipstick that I love wearing so much! When it was released again recently along with shades Heaux and RiRi Boy, I decided to get a back-up because it’s so easy to burn through red lipstick.

Funny how I used to be a sheer-lipgloss lover. Now I’m obsessed with matte statement lipsticks!

Recently, MAC Cosmetics had an online-exclusive launch of 3 lipsticks as part of a collaboration with singer, Rihanna.

After dealing with the frustrating online waiting room and having the server time out 2 times, my 3rd attempt was successful. I feel very lucky that I was able to snag all 3 MAC RiRi Hearts MAC Lipsticks. (I paid $18 CAD for each, and I used a coupon code to get free standard shipping.)

I got a back-up of MAC RiRi Woo, which is very similar to cult favourite, MAC Ruby Woo. (I don’t own MAC Ruby Woo.)

Also, I got MAC RiRi Boy, a lavender lipstick that I was most excited about. Finally, I decided to get MAC Heaux, which is a deep reddish berry.

All of these limited-edition lipsticks have a Retro Matte finish, which I’ve never tried before. And the lipstick bullets are engraved with Rihanna’s signature.

In this Haul of Shame post, I’ll give you a closer look at all 3 shades. Any swatches will be reserved for review posts.

This is a shade that I’ve never worn before. As a new ‘lipstick convert’, I tend to wear more traditional shades like neutrals, but I have dabbled in (and loved) the super bright pinks and corals.

Although I’m very confident about wearing virtually any shade on my fingernails, when it comes to my lips, I was pretty self-conscious.

Wearing those louder shades on my lips made me curious about experimenting with other colours that I had previously ignored because I didn’t have the confidence to pull them off.

Purple is a shade I adore on others because it makes a big statement, and because, well, purple is one of my favourite colours.

(Green is my number-one favourite colour, hehe, if you couldn’t already tell from the many times I’ve gushed about green nail polish! But, I can’t say that I ever want to sport green lipstick unless it’s Hallowe’en. I’m not quite ready to go that far, even if I love goths who wear crazy lip shades!)

So you can imagine how nervous I was about MAC Heroine Lipstick. I’m happy to report that after this, I’m no longer too shy to sport purples. I really love how it’s an interesting and different shade – unexpected, actually! (At least it is on me.)

It makes a statement, but it’s not too crazy that it’s inappropriate for daytime wear. I just love it, and I think it suits my personality. Plus I seem to get lots of compliments when I wear it. That doesn’t hurt! 😉

I’m super excited to share this MAC Fashion Sets Collection Haul because I’m on such a bright-lipstick kick lately.

It’s probably because just swiping on some colour is enough to completely boost your spirits.

Lipstick is like nail polish with colour therapy, except you don’t have to wait for it to dry!

Although I’ve always been into lip gloss, I think the reason why I’m gravitating toward these bright lip colours is because they’re bolder, and they remind me of warm, sunny weather ahead.

So when the MAC Fashion Sets Collection came out, I was all over it!

Normally when a limited-edition MAC collection comes out, I prefer to place an online order to avoid the in-store madness that always ensues. But, this time I completely missed the early online release, so I tracked down 3 out of 4 of the MAC lipsticks in-store.

I was able to find MAC Silly Lipstick (light pink) and MAC Embrace Me Lipstick (bright pink) in-store, and then I got the very last tube of MAC Ablaze Lipstick (orange) from the MAC counter at The Bay.

The one I was most looking forward to, MAC Heroine Lipstick, seemed to be sold out everywhere, and I was pretty bummed.

Then a miraculous thing happened – the guy I’ve been dating more seriously for a couple of months managed to not only find Heroine, but he also bought me 2 tubes of it, plus the MAC Silly Lip Liner and a back-up of MAC Silly Lipstick! What an amazing surprise! 🙂

I thought it was pretty funny how so many women (like myself) were trying so hard to locate MAC Heroine Lipstick, and he told me that he literally just went to one store – there was no line-up, and (get this) they had 8 tubes of Heroine Lipstick left! *Gasp*

(I’m still getting a kick out of thinking about him walking into the store and saying, “I’m looking for heroine.” Hehe, ‘heroin’!)

If you follow me on Instagram, you already got some sneak peek lip swatches on MAC Ronnie Red Lipstick.

Excuse me, but I am in love with Ronnie Red! And this is coming from someone who hardly wears red lip colour. I wanted to try this one, plus the Veronica Lodge packaging was too good to pass up.

I’m so glad I bought the MAC Ronnie Red Lipstick because it’s literally the perfect wearable red lipstick for me. Since buying it, I’ve worn it so much that I’m considering going to the MAC store and buying a back-up!

P.S. I also want to take this opportunity to say that I’ve read a lot of the comments that you’ve left in my Illamasqua Raindrops Giveaway post, and I’m incredibly touched. I will try my best to reply to comments on the weekend (because right now time is soooo tight).

But I wanted to let you all know that I am just so grateful that I have the BEST blog readers around! You have no idea how much what you’ve said means to me. I work hard on my blog, and the fact that you appreciate it makes me teary eyed!

THANK YOU for your support and for being vocal about it. It really does motivate me to continue blogging for as long as I can.

When I caught wind months ago about a collaboration between MAC Cosmetics and Archie, I knew that my wallet would be wailing.

Unfortunately for Mr. Piggy Bank, I wasn’t wrong.

At the end of January, the MAC Archie’s Girls Collection went live online. (I’ve never rushed home so fast! I literally was running in heels!)

Yes, the collection will hit stores in a couple of days, but for limited editions like this, it can be hard to get hold of because the demand often outweighs the supply.

Since I wasn’t interested in rubbing elbows with others to get what I wanted, I tried my luck online. Thankfully, running home like a maniac after work paid off. I got everything that was on my To-Buy List. To put the insanity in perspective, some items sold out in around an hour or so!

MAC lip products are my Kryptonite. (Oddly, I’m never tempted by their nail polishes.) Maybe it’s that their lip products come in every single shade and finish that you could ever want or need. Perhaps it’s their yummy vanilla-cake-batter scent. Or maybe it’s because they come out with cool themes for limited-edition collections!

Whatever the case, MAC waved their magic wand over me, and I fell prey to the cosmetic curse. 😉

This MAC Archie’s Girls Haul was a major splurge for me, and it’s not my typical beauty-shopping habit to drop a couple of hundred dollars in under 5 minutes. (Heck, if I shopped like that, I’d be broke in less than an hour!)

My birthday is near the end of this month, so I’m considering this as an early present to myself. I don’t really go all-out for my birthday celebrations, and I hardly ever get birthday presents from others, either, so I felt like it was time for a treat…one that wasn’t nail-polish-related! 😉

By the way, you may not have known, but my first beauty addiction was actually lip gloss! I used to have tons, but then I found nail polish, and lip gloss was forgotten. I fear that the MAC Archie’s Girls Collection reinvigorated my love of lip products! (Ahh! Haha!)